Amazingly, backyards and city parks are now important natural bird habitats because of the ever-growing human encroachment on open land.

In fact, landscaping with diverse plantings and feeding stations now provide an oasis of resources in the middle of human habitation. This can be a win-win opportunity.

Conservation starts at home. Feeding and watching birds gives families the opportunity to practice conservation right in their own yards.

Children can learn and enjoy the wonders of nature right from their kitchen window. Think of how thrilled they will be watching hatchlings struggle out of their eggs.

In no time at all, they will learn how birds help control the insect population... and, become very curious about what their new friends eat and drink. (Of course, kids are not the only ones...)

How your family can learn about birds... A particularly fun aspect of bird conservation is learning which birds are visiting your backyard habitat. There are several good identification field guides to help you identify the wild birds in your garden... such as National Geographic, Peterson's East & West, and Birds of North America.

Basically, birds are grouped by physical characteristics. It is fairly easy to distinguish a duck from a songbird just by looking at them. Here's a list of a few of the physical characteristics that help identify birds:

Size

Body shape

Colors

Markings

Beak shape

Feet and wing shape in flight

Did you know that birds have a variety of calls? Bird gardeners become good listeners, and can tell the difference between the Black-Capped Chickadee's call (which sounds remarkably like their name... "chickadee") and the American Robin's call ("cheerily - cheerio - cheeriup").

Neighborhood bird habitats... From a bird's point of view, a neighborhood of backyards is actually a habitat... theirs. How successful that habitat becomes, depends in no small part on the individual efforts of the neighborhood's gardeners.

So you see, every little thing you and your neighbors do to help these wild birds in your own backyards is really no "little" thing.

Your neighborhood becomes a wild bird habitat, and you have become bird conservationists... not just backyard gardeners!